Who is Harry Truman
Harrys S Truman, the 33rd President of the United States, was born on the 8th May 1884 and died on the 26th December 1972. He served as vice president to Roosevelt, succeeding him in 1945 after Roosevelts death.
Truman’s early career was one of war, serving as a Captain in World War 1 in France, returning home to enter a life of politics, first as an official in Jackson County and then as a Senator in 1934. He was a driven individual who chaired a committee aimed at reducing waste during wartime and promoted international cooperation, as opposed to the traditional isolationist views of some of his contemporaries. One of his most notable legacies during his early years of the presidency was the authorisation to use nuclear weapons, the only time ever that this has been done. He was then instrumental in implementing the policy to rebuild Western Europe and create NATO.
He secured another term in power by winning the 1948 election and this period was notable for the Korean War, guiding the country through the economic situation post-world war two and implementing civil rights legislation that allowed racial integration in the military. Sadly, after his retirement, his time as president was criticised, partly due to corruption but in the subsequent years, his tenure has been viewed in a more positive light, given the time and circumstances he was involved with.
Harry Truman Quotes
1. Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
2. Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in
3. In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.
4. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit
5. The reward of suffering is experience
6. The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all
7. If I’d known how much packing I’d have to do, I’d have run again.
8. Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.
9. I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.
10. The Marine Corps is the Navy’s police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin’s
11. I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell
you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.
12. Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.
13. When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship
14. The White House is the finest prison in the world.
15. If you can’t convince them, confuse them
16. When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.
17. My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.
18. I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!
19. All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
20. You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.
21. I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
22. You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgements about what is going on.
23. In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.
24. Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.
25. Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought.
26. Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought.
27. A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.
28. Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.
29. It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.
30. A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.
31. It’s plain hokum. If you can’t convince ’em, confuse ’em. It’s an old political trick. But this time it won’t work.
32. The President is always abused. If he isn’t, he isn’t doing anything.
33. I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.
34. Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.
35. I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
36. Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.
37. Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.
38. We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.
39. The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.
40. Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.
41. Whenever a fellow tells me he’s bipartisan, I know he’s going to vote against me.
42. The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
43.This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.
44. It sure is hell to be president.
45. You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.
46. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
47. A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.
48. A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.
49. If I hadn’t been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.
50. Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.
51. All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.
52. Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.
53. Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
54. I would rather have peace in the world than be President.
55. A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes
opportunities of his difficulties.
56. I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.
57. The buck stops here!
58. I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
59. You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.
60. A President cannot always be popular.
